Dovi gets Ducati a podium; Marquez swims to his 8th victory!

MotoGP Assen was a farfetched cry from the usual MotoGP action viewers are subjected to. A wet race usually pumps up the excitement, but this one rather dampened it. With most riders opting to ride at half their pace keeping safety and championship points in mind, the Assen MotoGP without debate was one of the least exciting wet races so far.

Start of the race had Ducati rider Andrea Dovizioso take lead from pole sitter Aleix Espargaro soon followed by Honda rider Marc Marquez. The battle between these two was a little exciting as the Italian and the Spaniard swapped positions almost four times until Marc finally kept the lead. Teammate Dani Pedrosa finished third.

Valentino Rossi decided to move to wet tyres pretty late and hence had to start the race from the pit lane. Inspite of this he finished fifth after battling the position with Andrea Iannone and Alvaro Bautista who finished fifth and sixth. Fellow Yamaha rider Jorge Lorenzo had bad luck looming over him as he barely managed to finish 13th after Scott Redding. This was one of Lorenzo’s worst performances ever. Post race Lorenzo apologized to his team and fans for the appalling performance.

Cal Crutchlow performed well for most part of the race, however he managed to get the Ducati across the finish line at ninth. He lost the battle for eight after Bradley Smith’s aggressive attacks.

A second drizzle spell made the teams reconsider prepping the wet bikes again, thought it was only Marquez who seemed to favour the idea of a second pit stop.

The next MotoGP will be held in Germany at Sachsenring.

Results
Pos  Rider             Team/Bike               Time/Gap
1.  Marc Marquez      Honda                 43m29.954s
2.  Andrea Dovizioso  Ducati                   6.714s
3.  Dani Pedrosa      Honda                   10.791s
4.  Aleix Espargaro   Forward Yamaha          19.199s
5.  Valentino Rossi   Yamaha                  25.813s
6.  Andrea Iannone    Pramac Ducati           29.003s
7.  Alvaro Bautista   Gresini Honda           30.882s
8.  Bradley Smith     Tech 3 Yamaha           30.985s
9.  Cal Crutchlow     Ducati                  44.031s
10.  Stefan Bradl      LCR Honda               48.662s
11.  Broc Parkes       PBM Aprilia             51.863s
12.  Scott Redding     Gresini Honda         1m00.329s
13.  Jorge Lorenzo     Yamaha                1m04.641s
14.  Karel Abraham     Cardion Honda         1m05.980s
15.  Danilo Petrucci   Ioda Aprilia          1m17.611s
16.  Hiroshi Aoyama    Aspar Honda           1m19.753s
17.  Nicky Hayden      Aspar Honda           1m27.630s
18.  Hector Barbera    Avintia FTR-Kawasaki  1m28.142s
19.  Yonny Hernandez   Pramac Ducati             -1 lap
20.  Mike di Meglio    Avintia FTR-Kawasaki      -1 lap
21.  Michael Laverty   PBM Aprilia               -1 lap
22.  Colin Edwards     Forward Yamaha           -3 laps
                                                      
Retirements:                                          
                                                      
     Pol Espargaro     Tech 3 Yamaha             8 laps